Writing Blue Highways: The Story of How a Book Happened

In 1982-83, William Least Heat-Moon’s Blue Highways, a chronicle of traveling America’s back roads, spent 42 weeks on The New York Times best-seller list.

Thirty years after his 14,000-mile, 38-state journey, Least Heat-Moon re-examines the making of the book in a discussion of Writing Blue Highways: The Story of How a Book Happened. He reflects on the stops and starts in his composition process, the numerous drafts and painstaking revisions, and the depressing string of rejections by publishers.

Born in Kansas City and currently living in Rocheport, Missouri, Least Heat-Moon also has written PrairyErth, River-Horse, Columbus in the Americas, Roads to Quoz, and Here, There, Elsewhere.